Mark Webber says results not age will decide his Formula 1 future
Mark Webber says his decision on when to retire from Formula 1 will not be based on his age, but on whether he is still delivering results
The 35-year-old Australian signed a new one-year deal with Red Bull Racing during the summer.
But asked if he felt he was now in a countdown towards retirement, Webber replied: "No. That's not the right attitude. The attitude is to focus 100 per cent on the next race. The results are the important thing, not the age.
"I've had team-mates who don't get the results and they are finished when they are 21. It's a results based industry. If you don't get the results, you don't operate with the top teams."
After fighting for the title in 2010, Webber was often some way off team-mate Sebastian Vettel's pace in 2011, and won just one race while Vettel took 11 victories on the way to a dominant championship.
Webber said he was keen to recharge and put this season behind him, but would soon be impatient to start 2012 and mount a resurgence.
"I haven't started recharging the batteries yet and I'm completely ready to do that," he said. "2011 is over, in my view, so it will be nice to start to recharge soon, to spend some time with the family and relax. But I know that I won't do that for long.
"I get quite impatient to go back racing. Three or four weeks is the limit before I start to get itchy feet so I'm really looking forward to how next year's car is going to roll out. There would be something wrong if you weren't looking forward to that and seeing how we were going to come up against Ferrari and McLaren."
Although his win in Brazil came after Vettel suffered a gearbox problem while leading, Webber said it still had a motivational effect going into the winter.
"It was a nice way to finish the season," he said. "It was a little bit disappointing that Seb had the big problem with the gearbox the night before the race and it wasn't a huge surprise that something might happen the race.
"You've got to be there to win it, so we were, and there were lots of races in the back part of the season that I was reasonably happy with.
"It's nice to finish with the motivation in this direction. I'm very hungry to start the season well next season, it's absolutely possible, and to get the momentum going."
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